Alongside Switzerland, Norway is among the most expensive countries in the world. Keep reading to find out how much money you need for 2 days in Oslo.
General comments
Costs are in CHF
Since I am Swiss, my expenses are obviously all calculated in Swiss Francs. However, lucky for me (and you) the Swiss Franc is basically on par with the USD and the Euro. This means, if your currency of reference is any of these three you can just take the numbers as they are without converting them!
You don’t need cash
Secondly, I used my credit card for all transactions. In my experience you really don’t need any cash during your stay in Norway. To minimize any transaction and exchange rate fees, I usually use Revolut – check it out, I can highly recommend this card for traveling!
Trip for two
I was travelling with my boyfriend on this trip. I like to mention this because for some trips your costs might be lower/higher if you are traveling in a group (e.g. shared ubers, shared rental car costs, etc…). However, in this case I believe there shouldn’t be a big difference whether you travel alone or with other people. The cost per person should be similar.
2 days 3 nights
We arrived on Friday early in the evening and left very early on Monday. Hence, the costs reflect a two full days and three nights trip.
Travel style
I would describe our travel style as budget aware. We like to stay in hotels, and like to eat out – but with everything we do we try to stay in the lower cost range where possible. So no fancy hotels and no fancy restaurants.
This is how much money you will need
Overall, we spent 367 CHF per person. This averages out to approx. 183 CHF per day if you divide it by two. See the table below for a more detailed cost breakdown per expense category. This does not include the flights and any additional shopping we did.
| Category | Total Cost (in CHF) | Average per Day | % of Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel | 142 | 47 | 39% |
| Food | 138 | 46 | 38% |
| Activities | 47 | 23 | 13% |
| Transport | 40 | 13 | 11% |
| Total | 367 | 183 | 100% |
Hotel
We stayed at Anker Apartment – Grünerløkka. At the time of booking (around 1 month before our trip), this was the last semi-affordable option left that was still somewhat located in the center. As a reminder, for 3 nights we paid a total of 142 CHF per person.
The hotel is definitely geared more towards younger travelers, since I believe a part of the hotel also functions as student flats. The room was very basic, but it had everything you could need, including an in-house bathroom and a small kitchen. To reach the harbour/city center it will take you around 30-40 minutes by foot from here. However, the hotel is located in an area called Grünerløkka, which in itself is also quite cool and has many bars and restaurants.
Overall, I would definitely recommend the hotel Anker Apartment – Grünerløkka.
Activities
Oslo of course has many cool things to do! While there are some free things to do, I highly recommend to splurge on at least a couple of activities. We spent a total of 47 CHF over 2 days. This included:
- Norsk Folkemuseum: This is an open-air museum that displays houses from all over Norway. On a sunny day, it’s like a walk in the park with some added sights along the way. The entry costs 6 CHF.
- Fram – The Polar Exploration Museum: This was a really cool museum that you won’t find in many other places. It tells the story of the first Arctic and Antarctic explorations, and also features (I believe a life-sized) exploration boat on the inside. The entry costs 8 CHF.
- Oslo Fjord Cruise: This 1,5 hour cruise will give you a water perspective of Oslo and its surroundings. To be honest I’m not sure if I would do it again though. At 33 CHF per person it was quite expensive, and maybe not fully worth it.
I do have to say though, that for the activities section truly the sky is the limit. There are plenty of more museums to visit, or longer and more expensive cruises, etc…
Food
Food is of course a major expense of any trip, especially if you are eating out for most meals. Personally, we like to keep breakfast light and relatively cheap, and go for a heartier and nicer lunch and/or dinner. See below how much we spent per meal type.
| Meal Type | Total Cost (in CHF) | Average Cost (in CHF) |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 21 | 7 |
| Lunch | 31 | 10 |
| Dinner | 56 | 19 |
| Drinks | 17 | 8 |
| Snacks | 14 | 7 |
| Total | 138 | 46 |
Transport
We personally reeeeeeally love walking, hence we try to avoid using other means of transport as much as possible. Nevertheless, since Oslo is quite spread out in my opinion there is no way around hopping on a bus, ferry, taxi or all of the above.
We spent a total of 40 CHF on transportation, which includes 2x the train from the airport to the city, a couple of bus and tram rides and one ferry ride.
Flights
I excluded the costs in the overview at the beginning, since this highly varies from your destination of origin. However, for completeness’ sake I want to mention it here anyway. I personally flew from Zurich and got a really good deal for 140 CHF per person for a return ticket. But depending on the season you might need be prepared to pay a bit more, prices can go up to 300-400 CHF for a return ticket.
Highest individual costs
Let’s break down my top three highest single costs:
- Hotel: This is an obvious one, and one you can’t avoid. As mentioned before, the Anker Apartment – Grünerløkka hotel cost us 142 CHF per person for 3 nights.
- Oslo Fjord Cruise: The 1,5 hour cruise cost us 33 CHF per person
- Sushi dinner by the water: We had a nice sushi dinner on our last evening. The restaurant was called Yokoso and the food was delicious. We paid 27 CHF per person 🙂
Can i also visit oslo for cheaper?
There are two obvious things that you can do to bring your budget down. First of all, instead of getting a private room you could search for dorm rooms. However, I believe that even a dorm room will not be SIGNIFICANTLY less than what we paid for our room.
Secondly, and this could have the biggest impact, is cutting down on eating out. Restaurants are fairly expensive, which means that eating out for every meal will really add up. If you don’t mind cooking, this is a great way to save money. There are also a lot of parks and open areas, where a picnic would be really nice.
Final remarks
To conclude, for a weekend in Oslo as a budget aware traveler you can expect to pay around 370 CHF per person + flights. As always, there is a lot of room to go over this budget, but also still some wiggle room to go lower than this.
P.S. For cost breakdowns of other destinations around the world check out this page here.